In need of a new library and understanding that the greenest building is one that already exists, the City of McAllen, Texas, decided to convert an abandoned Walmart big box store into its new main library. The primary design challenge was to create a functional, flexible library of 125,000 square feet on a single level. To meet this challenge, forms, materials, patterns, and colors create elements that organize the space, provide landmarks for visitors, and modulate the scale of spaces within the largest single-story library in the U.S.

McAllen Main Library | Notes of Interest

The primary challenge of reusing an abandoned Walmart building was to create a highly functional, flexible library of 124,500 square feet on a single level. This area is equivalent to nearly two and a half football fields, making the new library the largest single-story library in the United States.

The interior of the abandoned building and new mechanical systems were painted white to form a neutral shell for new patron and service areas, which are designated with color. Primary program areas—including community meeting rooms, the children’s library, adult services, and the staff area—are located in… read more +

McALLEN — McAllen’s new library will celebrate its first anniversary on Dec. 10, marking one year since the former Wal-Mart building opened to the public.

Students and bookworms pack the building every weekend, which prompted McAllen to seek additional library workers. And after winning an award from the International Interior Design Association, the building’s transformation from big box to mega-library went viral.

WESLACO – Metal and wooden beams, a towering entrance and a back patio awaiting a roof of live grasses and plants sit among construction walkways and material piles at Weslaco’s Valley Nature Center.

By mid-January, the center should have its new 8,300-square-foot facility complete and filled with displays to include a full-sized replica of a tree growing up to the ceiling and a riverbank cut-out of the Rio Grande.

“It will be able to allow us to interpret the regional ecology here much better for the people who visit,” said center Executive Director Martin Hagne.

While the New McAllen Public Library is receiving accolades for award winning interior designs, sustainability features that reduce the building’s carbon footprint are deserving of the public’s attention, such as:

Sensor controlled lighting system which automatically balances natural daylight and artificial light in the Children’s Reading Room and the Main Reading Room.

Creating a massive library probably isn’t the first thing to come to mind, but that’s what happened in the town of McAllen, Texas, reports Dave Pinter at PSFK.

It inherited the location after Walmart closed the store and left for a larger local spot. So, McAllen got architecture firm Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle to come in design the interior of a new library. McAllen architects Boultinghouse Simpson designed the building’s exterior.

It’s a 124,000 square foot space — that’s about 2-and-a-half football fields — which make it the biggest single-story library in the country.

McALLEN — Architects, businessmen and civic-minded McAllen residents gathered at the Palm View Community Center last week with a question: What should become of the city’s long-neglected Botanical Gardens?

A forest covers more than half the 22-acre property, which McAllen shuttered several years ago. Aerial photos uncovered by the Valley Land Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving native habitat in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, show that remnant of the region’s native Tamaulipan forest was densely wooded as far back as 1939.

Organized by the Land Fund and City of McAllen, the five-hour brainstorming session… read more +